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# Alternative Reading, Writing and Study Rules

#### by Brian Fourdraine

The copyright of this article remains with the original author. Articles may be copied or distributed freely for personal non-profit use, provided that the author is properly credited.

### Contents

- Introduction
- Covenant Library Creation Value Adjustment
- Modification of Extra Arts & Extra Spells
- Writing Tractatus
- Optional Rule Addition - Writing Multiple Tractatus on a Spell
- Writing Libri Quaestionum
- Strong Writer Amendment
- Reading Total - Revised
- New Vis Study
- Scribe (alphabet) Progression Rules
- Optional Expansions of the Practice Rule
- Spell Practice Rule
- Spontaneous Spell Penetration Adjustment
- Optional Sponted Spell Practice
- Secret Vis Source Adjustment
- Overall Effects of these Rules - Conclusion

### Introduction

I have been bothered by some little things in the Ars Magica 4th edition study rules, for example that the talent Concentration seems to be the most important thing to have as far as study and spellcasting, or that you can never write more than one tractatus per season, even if you could write a tractatus double or triple the magnitude of the two you would like to write in a season.

For these reasons, I decided to spend some time in thought as to what the simplest and most common-sense solutions to these and other such little problems are.

While these rule modifications to the existing rules are (mostly) each relatively minor in themselves, they were made with a common game moulding intention and as such depend on each other. Most of these rules can be used separately without becoming nonsensical, but the ones about Reading Totals and Scribe (alphabet) progression are very dependent upon each other. The ones marked "Optional" are ones which I can see good reasons for both using and not using, and which I can imagine many not-so-rulemod-inclined SGs wishing to have no part of.

I have not completed my list of alternative rules, and might never do so. I have barely touched the Covenant Creation Rules. That stated for the record, please enjoy fishing for modifications you like in this.

### Covenant Library Creation Value Adjustment

At standard, Summae for arts are valued at 2 x (Level + Quality), Libri Quaestionum at Level + Quality, and Tractatus at 3 x Quality. I change the Tractatus value to simply Quality. The reason for this is simple: The higher level tractatus require a very advanced magus to make sense of them, and the number of magi who can learn or invent a level 60 spell (to make use of a quality 12 tractatus) are few.

I did this because I like books that run out quickly, as opposed to players getting a couple of huge summae of insane quality which they sit around reading for decades. Consequently, the players could reasonably decide that a number of tractatus all on a common spell would be of more use, especially since there would be no learning limit. Five fifth magnitude tractatus could reasonably teach a magus to level 8, or past that if they started from a non-zero score, while a target 8 quality 5 summa would cost more, get you only as far as level 8 and waste any extra time you spend finishing the last bit of level 7. Consequently, players would end up having to learn spells along the way too, or invent them, which also makes for interesting experimentation and Magic Theory gain.

I'd adjust the cost of Summae to 3 x (Level + Quality) simply to discourage the use of Summae. These creativity killers shouldn't be tolerated in the game, as it allows a player with no real interest beyond munchkining to say, "Study that Ignem summa for 6 seasons then start studying vis. In 5 years I'll invent Ball of Abysmal Flame and Lamp Without Flame in the same season."

### Modification of Extra Arts & Extra Spells

The book Virtues valued at +1 are ludicrous in that nobody in their right mind would take them. In a single season, a reasonably well designed character could get more spell levels or art levels than this Virtue is worth, and over years the bonus erodes to nearly nothing. For this reason I believe that making the plusses involved with each to adding 20 levels instead of 10 would still be less powerful than Stingy Master, since again they could erode the penalties it provides inside one or two seasons, and do it more easily with the two extra Virtue points they could put into Knacks in a number of skills & talents, Free Study, Adept Student, or a number of other such Virtues whose effects are very pronounced already, inside of two years only. If anything, I think that the Stingy Master Flaw should be -30 to both spell levels and arts, and that these virtues should be worth +30 to spells and arts each, but that could make it unbalancing in another way.

### Writing Tractatus

Well, the limit of the magnitude on which you may write a tractatus is nullified, and the number of magnitudes of tractatus you may write down per season is your (Communication + Scribe Latin); +3 if you have Strong Writer or -3 if you have Weak Writer. If you have a negative or zero scribing total, you may not write original tractatus. Copying tractatus is done at (Dexterity + Scribe) x 3 magnitudes of tractatus per season, or x2 or x4 if you have Weak or Strong Writer respectively. When I say magnitudes, I mean that a level 5 spell is a 1st magnitude spell, with a tractatus level of 1 for reading and copying. Anyone who has mastered 10 level 5 spells and has a sufficiently high Com + Scribe score (10 or higher) can write them all down in one season, instead of spending 10 seasons to write them one per season.

The reasons for this are obvious - the lesser the spell, the less you can really say about it, and the less writing there is to be done about such a spell. Writing trivial tractatus should not take up an entire season. Consequently, there would be an immense number of very low level tractatus floating around the Order of Hermes as any tractatus is desirable to magi who are trying to save vis for a project and have studied past the usefulness of all their Libri Quaestionum and Summae. Since they take little paper and (should take little) time to copy, they make an infinite amount of sense as bulk study materials to be traded and copied. As such, making a large number of copies of a single tractatus and trading them to a large number of covenants would be a fairly common practice - and much like our modern practice of having professors write one or more research papers once per year which are distributed throughout academia across the globe (by the internet now). This would likely be the best method of Bonisagi dispersing their research, along with copies of the spell which the tractatus was written on; it would also mean that collections of such works would most likely form the bulk of a library, and low level ones would be granted in bulk to new covenants, and sometimes left to rot if they really don't matter that much (like the tractatus on Sense the Nature of Vis (Vim) by Arnoldo of Bonisagus that everyone has read or decided to ignore).

This however can greatly upset the balance of a saga where magi have little vis, as studying a tractatus can be done whatever your art score, and can yield potent results especially for ancient or very experienced magi. I like it for fairly obvious reasons - it makes sense, and gives magi a good reason to learn or invent spells in the saga (instead of just sitting around accumulating art scores in preparation for inventing whopper spells and sponting magic). Consequently, I think your average library should have a heavy bias towards tractatus content, with a few lower level summae and libri quaestionum for younger magi to gather an elementary understanding from, to begin inventing or learning the spells necessary for tractatus study. (Usually designed to bring an art score to 6 and let the magus go on from there.)

### Optional Rule Addition - Writing Multiple Tractatus on a Spell

If a magus/maga's lesser art score for a spell is as high or higher than the level of the spell he/she wishes to write a tractatus on, they may write two different tractatus on the spell - one for each of the two principal arts of the spell. (For example, a Flambeau with Creo 15 and Ignem 18 can write two different tractatus on her mastered Palm of Flame; one teaching Creo, and one teaching Ignem.) This makes a fair bit of sense as well, since magi who master low level spells but have a lot of insight into the nature of the magic (i.e. high art scores for both arts involved) should be able to describe a single simple subject from all the (or at least multiple) possible angles of interpretation.

This would make it a lot more worthwhile to bother mastering low level spells for writing tractatus on; even though higher level tractatus are energetically sought out, they should be few compared to the deluge of lower level tractati that's available for little effort and low cost. (To avoid the players getting too much too fast, as much as because it makes sense.)

### Writing Libri Quaestionum

A magus has the ability to write Com + Scribe (+/- 3 for Strong & Weak Writers) levels of Liber Quaestionum per season. Only one such Liber Quaestionum may be written per season, which has +6 added to the total for Quality. The remaining time and writing total (if any) may be spent on other projects like tractatus and summae at the SG's discretion. Libri Quaestionum may only be written with positive integer target levels, and by magi with minimum art scores of 9. Libri Quaestionum are copied at a rate of (Dexterity + Scribe) x 3 / 5 Libri per season, or x2 or x4 if the author has Weak or Strong Writer respectively. An author may not write Libri Quaestionum more in depth than that which they can finish in one season.

The reasons for the above are obvious: It is a well discussed fact that Libri Quaestionum of target levels 1 and 0 seem to defy the rules. A magus with an art score of 3 could write a book which would reasonably raise an art level from 1 to 4, and this effect only starts tailing off at about an art score of 18, which could reasonably - if of high quality - take a magus' art score from 6 to 9 - the normal maximum level for their summae. A third of 0 is 0, so accordingly an inept magus with no knowledge beyond breaking (if that) would be able to write a Liber Quaestionum which could advance the knowledge of those in a similar state of cluelessness about an art. That's silly.

### Strong Writer Amendment

The Strong Writer influence on writing of a +3 to Quality doesn't make enough sense, and I think it would overcomplicate the study of a tractatus to have to consider more than the depth of topic of the text. Eventually, concerns may arise that papers written by authors of differing strength on the same spell should be of different values, but that's getting too complicated. I believe that most tractatus would be of fairly uniform quality for a given spell, as what's being recorded are the author's thoughts and impressions and ideas about the magic of the spell. If the author really has mastered the spell then their thoughts on the spell should be fairly clear, and valuable as a source of magical insight. Authors of different strength would be able to record greater or lesser amounts of tractatus per season, which is where the advantages of Strong Writer would lie. What Strong Writer would do for all writing, is add 3 to the scribing total for original composition, increasing the speed and quality of writing. Copying should best be handled by the other specific rules in this document.

### Reading Total - Revised

The harder problem was what to do about the standard reading total, which suddenly became simple to me one day; it should become Int + Scribe (alphabet), +/- 2 for Book Learner or Poor Reader, + the Quality of the work being read.

This is because skill with the written language in reading is the chief obstacle with reading quickly for comprehension. This was more so in the past, when reading was a means of storing spoken words in symbols, which were then sounded out phonetically to make the words which were treated as spoken words for comprehension. Back then, reading was not learnt until after a student was well past the age of 6 - at least 10 - so the facility with translating these symbols into words and back again was the chief limitation in reading speed and comprehension. The two skills of reading and writing are really one and the same - recognizing what sounds (or with advanced readers directly recognizing what meanings) are associated with which symbols or combinations of symbols. The comprehension part is the Intelligence component, and the Book Learner vs Poor Reader are innate talent and the effects of dyslexia to greater and lesser degrees (or other sight, reading or minute visual perception problems).

### New Vis Study

This depends on a number of factors. You may only perform this non-overseen type of study once you have at least a 5 in the art you want to study. (Books are someone else's thoughts, ideas, and exercises on an art written down, so reading a book on a magic art is taking directed study from the person who wrote the book.)

First the aura: A magic aura adds its level up to a maximum of half your Magic Theory, rounded down. Aura interaction tables as normal for this calculation; Roll one botch die in faerie, or two in either Infernal or Divine auras. If any of these botch dice come up consider it a complete failure of the study: Nothing happens. Adding to the aura, you may use one pawn of vis for each magnitude of knowledge you already have in the art being studied, each adding +4 to the total. This overall total is limited to double your Magic Theory. Add this total in XP to the art score studied, subject to the normal 3 levels per season maximum.

Then add a simple die in XP to the art, with a +2 modifier for each pawn of vis used, ignoring the 3 levels per season rule. With Free Study, make it a +3 per pawn of vis, and with Unimaginative Learner, make it a +1 per pawn of vis.

Assistants add half their effective Magic Theory to your Magic Theory and half their effective magic art score to your magic art score for calculating allowable gain and vis use. Round down.

Example: Novus of Flambeau has a Magic Theory of 5, an Ignem of 11 and is studying Ignem vis. Using two pawns of vis to study in an aura level 4, he has an aura value of +2 (limited to 2 by Magic Theory), and the vis adds +8 for +10. This maximum total is limited by his Magic Theory of 5, which provides for a maximum total of 10 only, which he has exactly; thus 10 XP normal study. The simple die comes up 5, with +4 for 2 pawns of vis adds 9 exp to his Ignem, for a total of 19 XP that season.

Example: Brainius of Bonisagus has a Magic Theory of 18 and a Mentem of 26. He studies Mentem using 5 pawns of vis, his maximum, in an aura level 8. His Magic Theory is high enough so that he can use all the background aura, and adding the +20 for 5 pawns of vis gives a total of 28; not at all limited by his Magic Theory (which could allow a maximum of 36). The simple die comes up with an 8, +10 for all his vis, meaning that he gains a total of 46 XP this season in Mentem, enough for almost two whole level raises.

Example: Moderato of Verditius has a Magic Theory of 14 and a Vim of 18, and an apprentice with a Magic Theory of 4 and a Vim of 6. With the aid of his apprentice he has a Magic Theory of 14 + (4 / 2) = 16, and a Vim of 18 + (6 / 2) = 21, so he may use 4 pawns of vis to great effect. His aura is level 5, plus 4 x 4 equals 21 normal gain - within the Magic Theory limit. A roll of 3, plus 8 for 4 pawns, adds 11, for a total of 32 XP gained.

As you may have guessed, this can allow some moderate to high gains in study with only a single pawn of vis. The rationale for taking away the basic standard multiplier effect is that a pawn of vis is a very exact quantity of stored magic, and the wild variations should come from elsewhere than the measured, quantified and defined type of vis. That's why the Magic Theory comes into play; if you try to use more than your knowledge of magic can handle, you're going to miss most of the important things in the study. However, munchkin art-raisers with access to huge pools of vis may use excessive quantities of vis for some benefit, although not much unless they raise their Magic Theory somehow.

### Scribe (alphabet) Progression Rules

Every season spent reading in an alphabet counts as practice, except that the number of exp gained has 1 subtracted. (Example: If a magus with Scribe Latin 3 studies for a season, and rolls a 5 on their practice die, they gain no experience in Scribe Latin. If said magus had a Scribe Latin of 2 instead, they would have gained 1 exp in Scribe Latin.) The maximum exp that can be gained in a season by reading in an alphabet is 2, and there is no guarantee of an exp gain. It is not possible to lose exp by reading of course.

Every season spent writing in an alphabet counts as normal practice, except that the magus/maga who rolls no exp gain still gains an experience point. (Example: If a magus with Scribe Latin 3 copies tractati for a season, and rolls a 5 on their practice die, they gain 1 exp in Scribe Latin. If said magus had a Scribe Latin of 2 instead, they would have gained 2 exp in Scribe Latin.) The minimum exp that can be gained in a season by writing is 1, and the maximum is 3.

This is very obviously to make magi agreeable to writing all forms of works on magic, as it improves their ability to study magic from books as well. It gives them reason to go out and procure vellum, or be upset if someone starts raiding their flock and shepherds. It also gives them reason to be interested in mundane wealth and the mundane state of their covenant, as well as in the local wars which might prevent or destroy local trade.

### Optional Expansions of the Practice Rule

SGs may elect to expand this rule to all skills, knowledges and talents, for consistency in rules, but be wary - it will lead to excessive ability scores in those abilities practiced to the exclusion of all others. Further, such would eliminate the natural cap on the value of practice that the original rule had; those with an ability of 15 are assured that they will be able to increase it to 16 with 4 straight years of practice, while previously they would be lucky to increase it to 16 by the end of their life. This can lead to very powerful hedge magi, as they can get into moderate to heavy life-extension magic with such singleminded concentration on their magical skills (especially cunning folk who also have no practical vis limitations).

### Spell Practice Rule

The base number of experience points gained in mastering a spell per season is 3. Further experience points can be gained by taking botch dice - for each extra experience point desired per season, roll one botch die, one at a time. If you botch one die, you may not continue studying for more exp per season, and you must roll a Twilight incident of phenomenon strength equal to the number of extra exp dice you've rolled for that season. (For instance, if you botched on your third exp die, you would be rolling against a phenomenon/aura strength of 3.) You may not take more than 10 extra exp per season. Rituals may not be practiced, without large expenditures of vis (essentially, you won't ever be considering this unless you have many queens of vis and nothing good to do with them). The Twilight occurs because of the large buildup of magic residue from your continuous practice - since you're not practicing under stressful conditions, you have to stress your magic to learn something.

### Spontaneous Spell Penetration Adjustment

The standard formulas for casting spontaneous magic are to total up Intelligence, Arts, Aura Effects, Focus bonus(es), Talisman bonus(es), and possibly Concentration or similar-spells bonuses if you concentrate for long enough. If the spell is being fast-cast, subtract 5 from this total (and double your number of botch dice), then divide this total by either 2 or 5 depending whether or not you spend a fatigue level. The original total has your Penetration skill added to it, and that is taken as the penetration total.

Example: Original total of Int +2, Creo 22, Ignem 23, Aura of 4, and a Fire focus of +5 (ruby?), giving a complete original total of 56. Adding a simple die, this ranges from 57-66, which divides by 5 to give a possibility of an 11.4 to 13.2 final spell level. The penetration value is figured from the original total, plus the penetration score, in this case a 6 with Ignem, to vary between a 63-72 penetration total.

Thus we can end up with (in the case of not spending a fatigue level) a magus who doesn't strain to cast a level 15 spell this way with a penetration total well in excess of 60. It just seems wrong (to me) that any magus using the amount of effort in flicking a finger with no formula can manage to get their puny spell past the magic resistance of a mighty dragon (or at least most magically resistant things), while another wizard's Ball of Abysmal Flame or Incantation of Lightning just amuses the dragon.

So, I'm making one change: The penetration of a spontaneous spell is figured as its effect level (after the die), plus the penetration score.

Example: Same scenerio of Int +2, Creo 22, Ignem 23, Aura 4, and Fire focus of +5, totalling 56. The magus casts his general Creo Ignem attack spell, and ends up with a roll of 5, totalling 61. This is divided by 5 to get a level 12 spell (rounding down), and a penetration value of 18 - since this magus has an effective 6 penetration in the specialty of Ignem.

For those not clear on the meaning of using concentration to boost a spell total: When you cast a spontaneous spell you can elect to spend a short while considering the best possible improvisation and gathering power to fuel your spell. Decide the target magnitude of the spell, then spend 5 minutes for each magnitude concentrating. Whatever you roll on the spellcasting, the maximum spell level is the target you have set. Once the concentration time is over, cast the spell adding your concentration score to the casting total, and dividing as normal.

Example: As above, except the magus has a concentration score of 9 and elects to try and cast a level 10 spell. The original total of 56 plus the 9 for concentration makes 65. A roll of 7 takes the total to 72, which is then divided by five to get 14 (rounding down). Since the spell level is limited to 10, it is a level 10 spell, and its penetration is 10 plus the penetration talent, for a 16 total.

Note: A similar modification for the penetration total of formulaic spells (i.e. level plus penetration, plus the die) might be considered, as with formulaic magic it's still possible that a master's Pilum of Fire affects a creature, but the apprentice's Ball of Abysmal Flame does not. This again makes little sense to me, as a spell's penetration should at least be related to the level of the spell cast.

### Optional Sponted Spell Practice

A good argument can be made that those who practice given spontaneous spells often should get better at those given effects by practice, right up to the point at which you essentially have a formulaic knowledge of a specific effect (which you could then master). In such cases, I have allowed that if you accumulate 2 exp per magnitude of the spell, you achieve an essentially formulaic knowledge of the spell, which you may write out as a spell you know. This would allow SGs to avoid annoying botches when wizards habitually cast effects like Lamp Without Flame, which can really side-track a story. Of course, such exp may not be gained by practicing spells for a season. Accumulated magnitudes of exp (for instance having 2 exp spent towards Lamp Without Flame) count as knowing that much of the spell for all laboratory and casting purposes. (So, for example, you would only have to spend 9 points of lab total to finish learning Lamp Without Flame if you've "learnt" the first magnitude of that spell according to the multiple season study rules.)

### Secret Vis Source Adjustment

Instead of 4 pawns of vis per year, this gives only 1 pawn per year, although it can be taken multiple times to reflect either multiple vis sources or more prolific vis sources. This Virtue may be taken a maximum of 4 times. Otherwise as the original Virtue posted in the 4th edition main book.

### Overall Effects of These House Rules

I must admit I made these rules with an ulterior motive instead of just making everything clearer and more realistic. I had the misfortune of SGing a saga where the players had a large number of high level summae which they essentially stole (scammed), and enough vis sources that they had no want for vis, nor even any desire to go outside their covenant and trade or explore, nor try to find vis. They manipulated themselves out of their vis obligation, and I was foolish enough to let it happen. Then, they sat around studying these summae and not even doing interesting lab work. Whenever I tried to inject any sort of conflict or threat or social aspect into the mix, the players either had their Bjornaer-bear creature (battle-munchkin) fight it and win, threw vis at it and cast a high level spontaneous spell, or they whined because I was "trying to destroy the covenant" by pitting them up against forces immune to their attacks that they actually had to bargain and/or talk with. So, I've invented these rules to make it unlikely that such players would have books that would never run out, as such books are unlikely to be written, and give them a good way to waste their vis for fun and longevity brewing preparation, as well as making them write books that accumulate on their shelves, and giving them reasons to invent and practice spells. Plus, I've doubled the amount of vis needed to pierce the magic resistance of something powerful with a spontaneous spell; the most important thing of all.

I also designed them to try and make more sense than the original rules, which seem to be odd and quirky in some ways, while well thought out in others: The original rules have a number of brilliant ideas which aren't sufficiently carried through, like that you can get better at a formulaic spell by casting it repeatedly in stressed circumstances (and spending exp on it), but there is no such mechanism for improving your skill at casting a specific effect you routinely improvise.

A very high level tractatus would need an accomplished magus to learn or invent the spell to make it useful, whereas a summa of quality 12 would just be a plot bane as long as the player could use it for gain. Magi could sit and read forever, but actually writing books makes all sorts of interesting things happen - like the magi being interested in mundane resources which lead to ink and vellum, and actually inventing spells and such worth writing down. Being capable of using vis in larger quantities for a larger study effect is always a good thing to us SGs as we know that more vis in the player's pockets is just less story, especially when they start getting enough vis that spontaneous spells become more important for covenant defence than formulaic. The "three levels max" rule is all we need for preventing stats-obscenities, plus possibly banishing Free Study. Finally, the spell practice rule gives players a good reason to actually want to practice spells as they can get more than a wimpy three exp per season, also making them able to write a larger number of tractati.

This all adds up to players doing more than just sitting on their asses and doing book learning non-stop, making something as pathetic and ungameworthy as a 10 year old winter covenant. They would actually have new and interesting works to trade if they follow the trend of the system, and they would also end up with a desire for vis and newer more potent books to read, which would motivate them to go out and trade with other covenants. Vis and spell components would actually become something that the players seek out as they try to shorten their wasted lab time in inventing the next spell. Talismans might actually be created, and once created would lead to invested items (if you allow talisman bonuses to labwork, which I would). In short, the SG wouldn't be catching flak for trying to make something happen, but would likely be instead working on creating an outside world and finding ways of giving players tantalizing glimpses of its treasures, which makes them rush out and go have an adventure. Plus, the time spent not in adventure would actually have some interesting labwork going on, as opposed to sitting around with books and occasionally distilling vis for casting an overpowered Aegis of the Hearth which prevents most stories. Further, the players could possibly be enlivened enough by the whole transformation of a boring stats-raising paper exercise into a serious interactive roleplaying experience that they may actually send their characters out to go master parts of this world; for their greater glory, the freedom of the peasants, as part of a machiavellian political game, or to gain vassals with which to harrass foes - it doesn't matter which. Some of the historical research you do might actually be useful at that stage...

I'm hoping that these rule modifications will add fun to campaigns that are essentially dead, and make accessible to less motivated and advanced gamers the awesome potentials of being a wizard in mythic Europe. I must admit that players who blindly follow the munchkin trend and don't look too far ahead will be naturally disposed to sit around and read arts from summae; it enhances their lab totals for inventing or learning spells in the future, and they want higher art scores to spontaneously cast everything. However, if you're in such a situation, what could really happen that'd make it all worse? You're already just providing a thin framework around which people shift and adjust meaningless numbers on a page; you might as well try these rules and introduce a character who follows the new trend of the system. It might make them open their eyes and get into the exercise of roleplaying, as opposed to what many term "rollplaying". Once the troupe has seen the vision and been there, it encourages players and SGs alike to contribute more thought and effort to the game - which always means a more enjoyable experience for all.